Relationships between gross motor skills and cardiovascular fitness with visuospatial working memory (VSWM) in children are hypothesized to be mediated by underlying functional brain mechanisms. Because there is little experimental evidence to support this mechanism, the present study was designed to investigate the relationships of gross motor skills and cardiovascular fitness with VSWM-related brain activation in 8- to 10-year-old children. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data obtained during a VSWM-task were analyzed for 80 children from grades 3 (47.5%) and 4 of 21 primary schools in the Netherlands (51.3% girls). Gross motor skills (Korper Koordinationstest für Kinder and Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency - 2nd Edition) and cardiovascular fitness (20-meter Shuttle Run Test) were assessed. VSWM-related brain activation was found in a network involving the angular gyrus, the superior parietal cortex, and the thalamus; deactivation was found in the inferior and middle temporal gyri. Although behavioral results showed significant relations of gross motor skills and cardiovascular fitness with VSWM performance, gross motor skills and cardiovascular fitness were not related to VSWM-related brain activation. Therefore, we could not confirm the hypothesis that brain activation underlies the relationship of gross motor skills and cardiovascular fitness with VSWM performance. Our results suggest that either the effects of physical activity on cognition do not necessarily go via changes in gross motor skills and/or cardiovascular fitness, or that brain activation patterns as measured with the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal may not be the mechanism underlying the relationships of gross motor skills and cardiovascular fitness with VSWM.

儿童粗大运动技能和心血管健康与视觉空间工作记忆（VSWM）之间的关系被假设是由潜在的大脑功能机制介导的。由于几乎没有实验证据支持这一机制，本研究旨在调查 8 至 10 岁儿童的粗大运动技能和心血管健康与 VSWM 相关大脑激活的关系。对荷兰 21 所小学中 3 年级（47.5%）和 4 年级（51.3% 女孩）的 80 名儿童在 VSWM 任务期间获得的功能磁共振成像数据进行了分析。评估了粗大运动技能（Korper Koordinationstest für Kinder 和 Bruininks-Oseretsky 运动能力测试 - 第 2 版）和心血管健康（20 米穿梭跑测试）。在涉及角回、上顶叶皮层和丘脑的网络中发现了与 VSWM 相关的大脑激活；在颞下回和颞中回发现失活。尽管行为结果显示粗大运动技能和心血管健康与 VSWM 表现存在显着关系，但粗大运动技能和心血管健康与 VSWM 相关的大脑激活无关。因此，我们无法证实大脑激活是粗大运动技能和心血管健康与 VSWM 表现之间关系的假设。我们的结果表明，体力活动对认知的影响不一定会通过粗大运动技能和/或心血管健康的变化来实现，或者用血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号测量的大脑激活模式可能不会改变。大运动技能和心血管健康与 VSWM 关系的潜在机制。